If You've Been Super-Gassy Lately, These 5 Habits May Be To Blame

Are you overdoing it with certain foods?

Being gassy just plain sucks. And, given that no one is happy to be farty and bloated, it makes sense that you’d want to do what you can to limit how gassy you feel.

Having some gas is normal, though. “Most people actually pass gas from below pretty frequently over the course of the day,” says Kyle Staller, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He estimates that, on average, most people are letting one rip between 10 and 20 times a day.

Still, if you’re regularly going beyond that or are just feeling bloated and uncomfortable a lot, it’s time to take action—and the best way to combat gas is to prevent it from getting out of control in the first place. These are the biggest habits that tend to make people gassy. (Kick-start your new, healthy routine with Women's Health's 12-Week Total-Body Transformation!)

Christine Frapech

While you’re probably not consciously gulping down air, talking when you eat or chewing too much gum can cause you to swallow a bunch of it, says Ashkan Farhadi, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center and director of MemorialCare Medical Group’s Digestive Disease Project in Fountain Valley, Calif. Once it’s in your stomach it can go one of two ways—back up as a burp or out as a fart.

Cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts are delicious, but they’re also known stinkifiers. “If you’re in the habit of having certain kinds of foods like these, they may make you gassier than others,” Farhadi says.

Dairy seems innocent enough, but people tend to lose the enzyme that helps break it down as they get older, Staller says. As a result, your body can't handle it very well. That explains why you might feel gassy after having a few bites of ice cream, while you used to polish off sundaes with zero issues in the past. “Many people will have more problems than they did previously,” he says.

Try Halo Top's new dairy-free ice cream:

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Most carbs break down into your body as sugar, and the bacteria in your gut loves sugar, Staller says. If you have too much of it, more sugar could head into your colon. “The bacteria in your colon have a field day and eat that sugar—and their waste is gas,” he says.

Christine Frapech

Foods that contain artificial sweeteners like xylitol and sorbitol aren’t meant to be absorbed by your body. “Any form of sugars that your body doesn’t absorb eventually is going to be food for the bacteria in the gut,” Farhadi says. “They make gas out of breaking down those un-absorbable sugars.”

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